poetry & poets - Rapid River Magazine

R A P I D R I V E R A R T S & C U L T U R E M A G A Z I N E
poetry & poets
January at Malaprop’s
International Water
Activist Doc Hendley
Sunday,
January 8
at 3 p.m.
If you think
that one
person can’t
change the
world, local
bartender
turned international
water activist
and author
Doc Hendley will prove you wrong.
Struck by the terrible fact that one billion
people lack access to clean water,
Hendley set out to do something
about it. He started in the famine and
terrorist ridden land of Darfur and
his efforts are now being duplicated
in other countries. His book, Wine to
Water: A Bartender’s Quest To Bring
Clean Water to the World, is a thrilling,
inspiring read; part memoir, part
adventure tale, part call to action. His
renegade style is guaranteed to make
his appearance at Malaprop’s a memorable
event.
To learn more about the world’s
water crisis and how you can help,
go to www.winetowater.org
Novelist Rose Senehi
Saturday,
January 28
at 3 p.m.
Local author
Rose Senehi
reads and
signs her sixth
novel, Render
Unto the
Valley, which
is the third in
her Blue Ridge
series. It’s a
mesmerizing tale of three generations
of a star-crossed family, struggling to
mend itself and preserve what remains
of its mountain heritage. Prominent
in Senehi’s stories are environmental
issues that broaden her characters’ personal
stories to regional concerns.
Visit www.rosesenehi.com
Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café
55 Haywood Street, downtown Asheville.
For more details call (828) 254-6734
or visit www.malaprops.com.
Poems by Rapid River Magazine Readers
With this first column for
2012, I want to recommend
some poems sent to me by
Rapid River readers in 2011.
I’ve written this column
for 2 ½ years now, and I’ve occasionally
received poems from people who obviously
value Rapid River as a forum for the
sharing of ideas and experiences with an
empathetic audience.
I haven’t incorporated these poems
in my columns thus far because I’ve been
Sunlight, Moonlight and Butterflies
The morning started like any other as I rose from my cozy bed.
I lingered by the mirror, studied the image... Was that me?
I saw the marks of time leaving misery and heartache behind.
I remembered loneliness, sadness, depression,
A sense of loss, that life was passing me by.
I remembered my children, all five of them healthy, some wealthy
But all of them wise.
I remembered old friends, old loves, lost within pages of months and years.
I then turned to the new day ahead, the sun welcoming my gaze.
Yes, today was more beautiful than the many before it.
Life was more than that image staring back at me.
I saw a new light of hope, of faith in life, of love for others.
Moments before I had lingered on what once was, could never be again.
Now new moments lay before me,
Of sunshine, moonlight, butterflies!
So no matter where I go today, whomever I see, whatever I do,
This new image goes before me.
Guiding me to new avenues, adventures and allures.
All because I took some time to linger... to ponder
Not only where this life had been, but where it’s going:
A new day of sunlight, butterfllies, moonlight …
And lightning bugs!
~ Rachael Bliss
eager to articulate — or to try to articulate
— my own perspectives on poetry in my
monthly columns. This month’s column,
though, is expressly dedicated to providing
space for poems by loyal readers of Rapid
River. I’d like to thank these particular readers
for entrusting their poems with Rapid
River, and I’d like to thank all readers of my
columns for caring about poetry, for helping
to keep poetry alive and vital.
~ Ted Olson
Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine
15th Annual Poetry Contest
Any Unpublished Poem 35 Lines or Less!
Deadline Extended until February 15,
2012. Winning poems will be printed in
the March 2012 issue. Reading fee: $5
for three poems. For more information
please call (828) 646-0071.
5 Winners! Prizes Include:
Tickets to the Opera; Mellow Mushroom
Gift Certificates; Tickets to local
concerts; and books from Malaprops.
Send poems to:
Rapid River Poetry Contest,
85 N. Main St., Canton, NC 28716
Gallery of Blue
My favorite gallery
is an infinite hall
Of wood,
of cloud and blue
A balustrade
of bloom and bark
And ever-changing view
of bird and butterfly
Where shining arcs
allow sun’s creamy arms
To wrap
and multiply
Where trees don’t heave
like oceans do,
Don’t surge
in rolls
Of salty blue.
Nothing is for sale here
All belongs to all
as always
But is owned by none.
Trees don’t list
like moods
drawn sour
But have their own
adherence:
They wave
in placid
gold green shimmer
‘Til frenzied wind’s
abrupt appearance
Lets loose
a tide of seizures
As leaves rattle
their wispy frames
Against a vast
blue ceiling.
~ Kirsten M. Walz
More on page 24
Ted Olson is the author of
such books as Breathing
in Darkness: Poems (Wind
Publications, 2006) and Blue
Ridge Folklife (University
Press of Mississippi, 1998)
and he is the editor of
numerous books, including
The Hills Remember: The Complete Short
Stories of James Still (University Press of
Kentucky, 2012). His experiences as a poet
and musician are discussed on www.windpub.
com/books/breathingindarkness.htm
Poets who would like for their poetry to be
considered for a future column may send their
books and manuscripts to Ted Olson, ETSU,
Box 70400, Johnson City, TN 37614. Please
include contact information and a SASE with
submissions.
22 January 2012 — Rapid River ArtS & CULTURE Magazine — Vol. 15, No. 5

R A P I D R I V E R A R T S & C U L T U R E
healthy lifestyles
‘Wonder’ continued from page 23
The Last Wolf of Carolina
I think of you often, in your final days, what life you must have endured.
Wandering the old mountains of Carolina on your own.
Haunting the forests where your tribe once walked with impunity.
A realm vast and wild, ruled by four-footed angels of death.
Sniffing the air for flashes of memory from former days.
Hopeful at night for the sound of distant kin, howling at a silent moon.
What went through your mind, as you gazed up at shining stars
on cold winter nights alone?
Did you dream in the evenings of your family and friends long gone?
One by one, falling to the bullets and traps of men.
Did you think upon the days of your youth, when you played as a puppy
outside some den in the remotest places your parents could find?
Back in the 20’s, when some cunning wolves still clung to the old ways,
in a world fast fading.
Perhaps in desperation, you ventured a time or two out on your own,
far to the north, even to Kentucky and West Virginia.
Only to find that your distant kin were forgotten memories in those regions.
So wearily, you returned to the mountains of Carolina, to the place of your roots.
Searching for a place that was now only to be found
in the innocent realm of your haunting memories.
Pulling down your food with apathy, the thrill of the chase
and the pack now gone.
I imagine from time to time, from some quiet place,
you sat and watched the passage of men on old mountain trails.
More numerous with every passing year.
Riding their horses,
filling the serene forests with their loud voices, and rifle blasts.
Knowing that to show yourself in the open meant certain death.
A lesson learned well by brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers,
sons and daughters.
In those rare moments of trust and fatal curiosity.
To which you would eventually succumb.
The mountains of Carolina are now quiet and still.
Left to the enjoyment of man and his sheep.
The spoils of Adam’s insane war on Eden.
No more bison, or elk, or cougar stalking prey.
No more magic wolves of colors red and gray.
My God, what have we done?
Did they all have to go away?
and opened to, rather than denied, the
possibility of sublime wonder, it was as
if I discovered what the concept/experience
of God might really be.
I wasn’t an alienated intellectual
anymore. I found that the infinite and
sacred were everywhere. This was the
great gift Abraham Heschel gave to me,
opening my nineteen-year-old eyes to
the miracle of “sublime wonder.” Try
it - as my gift to you. Perhaps it will be
a turning point in your life – and – if
enough people were to discover real
spirituality through cultivating the perspective
of living in “sublime wonder,”
it might be a turning point for this
whole “sinful” world.
~ Paul Owen
Bill Walz is a privatepractice
meditation
teacher and guide for
individuals in mindfulness,
personal growth and
consciousness. He holds
a weekly meditation class, Mondays,
7 p.m., at the Friends Meeting House,
227 Edgewood. By donation.
“Deep Meditation for Psychological
and Spiritual Healing,” Sunday,
February 19 from 2-4 p.m. at Jubilee
Community Church, 46 Wall St. in
Asheville - $10.
Information on classes, talks, personal
growth and healing instruction, or
phone consultations at (828) 258-
3241, e-mail at healing@billwalz.com.
Visit www.billwalz.com.
Asheville Tantra
School: WNC’s Holistic
Sexuality Center
The Asheville Tantra School
(ATS) begins its winter
classes with an open house
celebration on Friday, January
13. The school will be offering
a sneak preview of its winter roster,
which focuses on four themed
weekends.
You will have an opportunity
to get acquainted with the talented
faculty, preview inspiring classes,
and celebrate in an educational
party-style atmosphere. Faculty
will be present to answer questions,
demonstrate their diverse
teaching styles, and discuss upcoming
courses.
Faculty Genie Hardee gets us all
in balance and supercharged
with some Qigong.
This winter ATS will feature
four themed weekends:
• Tantra & Yoga: Ancient Roots
– Modern Practice
• Honoring the Feminine:
Essence, Eroticism & Divinity
• Erotic Endings: Prostate/Anal
Health & Well Being
• Healing Sexual Trauma: from
Shame to Celebration.
Visit the school’s website for
prices, dates, full class and workshop
descriptions, and teacher/faculty
bio’s. All classes are inclusive,
offered for men, women, gender
orientation, couples, and singles
unless otherwise noted. Classes
are also color-coded, so participants
know what to expect.
If You Go: Asheville Tantra
School 2012 Winter Classes
and Open House Celebration,
Friday, January 13 from 7-10
p.m. For information about
classes and registration visit
www.ashevilletantra.com or
call (828) 475-2887. Asheville
Tantra School, 2 Westwood Place,
Asheville, NC.
24 December 2011 — Rapid River ArtS & CULTURE Magazine — Vol. 15, No. 4